Opening the Wounds
by Utena Himemiya
Summary: ONE SHOT. FIRST FIC! SaionjiXJuri. In the world of twisted fairytales, predators become prey and symbolism is eminent. Things are defineately not as they seem. R&R!


**A/N: Okay, this is my first Utena fanfic, but not my first fanfic in general. I've been writing anime fanfiction. I wrote on this site 4 years ago, but people loved to be ignorant, so I deleted my account, however, I'm back now and writing once more.**

**Please be kind about this.**

**Basic Fanfic information:**

**Title: Opening The Wounds**

**Author: Utena Himemiya**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Pairing: SaionjiXJuri**

**Summary: ONE SHOT. SaiXJuri. In the world of Twisted Fairytales, predators become prey, symbolism is eminent and things are not as they seem.**

**Opening The Wounds**

**By: Utena Himemiya**

_I tear my heart open, I sow myself shut_

_My weakness is that I care too much_

_And my scars remind me that my past is real_

_I tear my heart open just to feel_

Her…

He couldn't help but feel animosity towards the curly haired divinity, fencing captain and co-worker he knew so fondly of as Arisugawa Juri. She was cold, distant and at times cruel to him. The leopard of a woman would always scorn him.

But he knew her better then that…

Saionji knew her inner most turmoil and weakness, for they were some of his own. They were created from the same chemicals, but poured into different molds.

Both of them are cold, callous and seemingly impenetrable from the outside. Figures of prestige and authority, they co-exist and each present themselves in a formidable way. They both stood tall and strong, like a skyscraper with a durable infrastructure, but it was only a reflection of the shadow, which presented a dilapidated structure, barely recognizable from the reflection.

This shadow was the truth behind their being.

A lonely leopard sits upon a wooden tree stump; alone on the plains. She does not stalk or hunt, she only sits there reminiscing of things she once had, for this leopard, and sitting in the field alone is merely a picturesque version of the past as she is now accompanied by a small blossom sprouting beside of her.

The blossom sprouts alone, the leopard never pays mind to it, causing it to wither a bit, day by day. Secretly, the blossom desires the leopard's attention.

The blossom soon blooms into a tattered green rose, tainted by the air around it, too fragile to have been exposed to society.

The two sit there, in complete silence, the leopard is on guard, and the green rose is secretly vulnerable, though it has many thorns.

They look at each other, staring emotionlessly as they do. Finally one of them speaks.

"I suppose we're to wait for the others." The green rose replied, planting himself in one of the white seats of the council.

The leopard crouches across from the rose, seated in the opposing chair. She began to pull out a deck of cards. She then looked to Saionji. "Seeing as you're the only one here, would you like to play a game of cards?"

"You actually **want **me to play with you?" The green rose replied.

"Well, we did show up early, and you are the only one here. I thought we could play a game before we got down to business, besides, you hardly ever attend our meetings."

Saionji propped his head up with his hand and arched an eyebrow quizzically. Did she just act decently towards him?

However, he accepted her offer and the two sat down and began to play an intense game of cards. Each player tossed a pair of identical cards in the middle of the colorless table. They sat in silence, doing this for a while.

Finally, the green rose gets its desired attention and from the leopard of all things.

After a moments passing time, they began to conversate.

"What business does End of the World have with us today, I wonder." Juri stated simply.

"The same as always, we are to be engaged to such-in-such in such-in-such duel on such-in-such day." Saionji replied, obviously bored with the idle chit-chat. "It's all repetition."

Hey lay a pair of cards into the stack.

"You say that until Himemiya is involved." The orange haired duelist laid down two identical two of spades down.

"What?"

"You go through all of those duels just to get a hold of something that you know doesn't love you."

Three cards fluttered to the white surface of the table, two of the cards flipped over and landed face down, one was shown face up, and it was the two of hearts.

The leopard could easily crush the rose by the loss of its fellow rose. A rose in which was an illusionist and deceptionist, easily being picked and given to some traveler who had admired its beauty. Some flowers were easily torn, and this one had been beaten by the worst winds many times, leaving it tattered and les appealing to the eye then most flowers.

There was a silence as amethyst eyes locked upon the piercing gaze of the leopard.

"But with the Rose Bride under my possession, she will do my bidding and grant me something eternal." Saionji replied, a slightly delusional and crazed smile crossing his face.

"That's the most pathetic answer I've ever heard." Juri sat her cards down as the smile disappeared from the rose's face. "Your something eternal is to make the Rose Bride love you? You know she has no free will and will love you because you want her to anyway."

"Why do you care? You hold contempt for her anyway." Saionji told her.

"Hmpf!" She turned her head to see if the other members of the student council were approaching. A grinding of albino legs against stone was heard faintly. Alert, the leopard turned to see the rose standing tall in front of her. She stood up and walked over to the green rose, curious as to what thoughts were crossing his mind.

"Beside, what plans could you possibly have that you haven't already used to beat Tenjou in a duel?"

Saionji looked down. Juri was right. He had no plan.

Secretly, it was not the Rose Bride that Saionji had his sights on, it was the leopard, sitting in the solitude of its ground. The rose is easily able to monitor the leopard in all of its stages and analyze the similarities and differences between the two. Though they are two different species, their similarities are much closer in many ways over time. The hatred brooded upon could make one figure out weaknesses. Weaknesses that could be attributes of oneself.

These similarities become intense analysis, in which, over time begins to fade, creating a new found appreciation for the once hated.

These feelings will remain unrequited, but Kyouichi didn't seem to mind. Any time he spent with Juri just to get her to notice him, was indeed good enough.

Being rooted into the ground, the rose is free to take in all information and stimuli around it. This makes the rose produce thorns, but also makes it a flower of both knowledge and pain.

"So, you have no plan of action? That means you don't plan on getting Himemiya back anytime soon."

Saionji turned around, "Plan of action?...Oh, I have a plan of action."

Juri looked confused and decided to be on high alert. The green roses' voice had an unfamiliar heir to it…it sounded amused and happy…Was Saionji's even in his right mind? Has his recent loss to Tenjou caused him to be mentally unstable?

He turned slowly, lifelessly towards his female counterpart and sat a hand on her shoulder.

Saionji lowered his face to meet up with hers and leveled her with a smile. The look in his eyes was one of an eerily blank and tranquil…And was that shine in his eyes desire? Inwardly, the leopard was growing tense, but on the outside, she remained calm.

"Since you're a leopard, you can think of it this way, sometimes the predator becomes the prey and things get twisted into situations that one would not think imaginable. Situations have ways of sticking to one path, but they can often twist into something that has a much deeper meaning."

With that, the lonely rose found an opportunity to give into all suppressed feelings over time and blossom fully unto the leopard, exposing the precious secrets trapped within the tightly closed blossom.

It seemed like an instant, but an eternity all the same. Juri couldn't believe what had just taken place, but her breath had been caught in her throat, like a fresh prey caught in a trap, and her lips occupied by her opposer's.

She would pull away, if the back of her head wasn't occupied by a large hand with a rose crest ring. The leopard was surprised that his touch was firm, yet gentle.

He gently stroked the back of her head in a comforting way, trying to quell any protests she might have made, but she was so caught off guard that she made none. She was completely submissive to his whims, even if it's for that one moment.

A million unanswered questions could run through her head, but nothing logical could describe this unorthodox attitude that Kyouichi Saionji had presented towards her. The kendo-ka savored his short but sweet taste of victory and was highly amused at the confusion of his victim, trapped in his vines and thorns of desire.

Ever since the loss of Anthy, Saionji had indeed grown a little crazy, a little lonely and decrepit in emotions, it might not have been the right time for him to tell the truth to Juri, but it an opportunity and those don't come often to this leopard.

They parted, Saionji still smiling a slight crazed, out of it and happy smile. At the same time, he is filled with contradicting emotions.

The leopard was stunned by the green rose's advance, caught in the viney snare, and surprised that the rose would oppose her or even dare to get that close to her.

Saionji turned around, smiling a victorious smile and spoke. "Not all things go accordingly to fairy tales. This game of cards was most interesting. We should play again sometime. I never said I wanted the Rose Bride because I loved her back. Everyone has a dark desire, if I win Himemiya from Tenjou, I can fill my own dark desire, the dark desire to feel the things I dream of from another and myself…and that other is you…Arisugawa. No matter how unrequited it may be."

"You're crazy." Juri replied mindlessly back.

"I may be, but I know I am true to my feelings. I do not have feelings towards the Rose Bride."

Footsteps could be heard as the others neared. A slender hand was put up to pink lips as a confused mind seemed to stand still in a frozen moment of time by the trance-like after effects of the crazed kiss from the kendoist.

"I see you're the first to arrive. How prompt pf you, Juri." Touga replied as he casually walked over, his footsteps echoing as he walked across the slate surface of the meeting area; Miki following suit.

The curly haired woman turned to say that Saionji was behind her, but as she did, she saw no sight of the green haired man.

"Something wrong?" Touga asked.

"Nothing." Juri replied, looking over her shoulder at the empty spot. " Nothing at all."

Even two different species can co-exist, the rose and the leopard have an odd symbiosis, but can never truly be together as one, difference drives them apart, and the rose is left to close its bloom once again…

In loneliness…

**Owari**

**A/N: Okay, that was weird. I wanted to try something a bit odd, and I figured I'd go with the odd pairings. I was heavily inspired by other works with this couple such as authors Oneesan no Miroku Houshi and Hinoto Nobukaze. I was also inspired by The Darker Shades of Green by Red Rose Touga, an absolutely amazing Saionji fanfic.**

**Notes:**

**#1: Yep, Saionji was not in his right mind, I figure he's a little crazed after loosing a duel and Saionji is prone to flipping out when in a duel. I tried to portray that side of him. Hope I got it right.**

**#2: All items mentioned have symbolism, the cards and their symbols (spades and hearts) are symbolic of what's happening and what's going to happen.**

**The leopard and the rose signify them in a unrequited love.**

**#3: Saionji wanted Anthy back in a crazy attempt to rid himself of his love for Juri. He no longer had feelings for the Rose Bride, but he did for Juri. I also hope I played that off as well.**

**Please R&R!**


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